


All That Was

by gingerpolyglot



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, Not A Fix-It, Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 08:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14131890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerpolyglot/pseuds/gingerpolyglot
Summary: While waiting for the Doctor on a planet far from home, Martha runs into a blonde and a man in a leather jacket who also goes by "The Doctor."





	All That Was

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Set somewhere between the Lazarus Experiment and Blink for Ten and Martha, and between Empty Child/Doctor Dances and Boom Town for Nine and Rose (and Jack)
> 
> Shoutout to my roommate for beta-reading

Martha is hanging around a dingy side street near a palace on some planet a million light-years from home waiting for the Doctor to come back when a blonde girl comes barreling around the corner and runs into her.

"Oh! Blimey, sorry 'bout that, didn't see you there!" the girl says, Cockney accent thick and wildly out of place on this planet. Martha starts, looking at the girl with wide eyes.

"But- you're human! Or, you look human. Are you human? How'd you get here?" she asks incredulously. The Doctor had said humans didn't venture out to this part of the galaxy for another hundred years or so. 

Then again, Martha thinks to herself, he has known to be off in his estimation of when they were. It was possible they were actually about a century further in the future than they'd intended to go.

The blonde girl jumps, as if just realizing this herself. "Yeah, I am. Are you? I have this friend and we travel. We're trying to find our other friend, we think he might have started a riot. Er," she pauses looking Martha up and down, "You haven't seen a really fit American sounding bloke running around starkers, have you?"

Martha stares. What sort of friends does this girl have? The girl makes a questioning noise and Martha realizes she hasn't answered. "Er, no, I haven't. Is he a nudist or something?" she asks. 

The blonde laughs. "Not as far as I know. Then again, 51st century values..." she muses to herself. Martha blinks at that but dismisses it - for all that she'd assumed the human girl came from her own time period due the jeans and early-00s style shirt, it occurs to her she has no idea how to actually tell. She's just about to ask when the girl cuts her off. 

"I'm Rose, by the way. Nice to meet you! What was your name?" she inquires with a smile. Martha shakes the proffered hand. 

"Martha, Martha Jones," she replies. The girl smiles again. 

"Lovely to meet you, Martha Jones. How'd you find your way to this part of the galaxy?" 

"Oh, same as you - I have this friend I travel with. Actually, I'm supposed to be waiting for him. He said something was wrong and tore off to go investigate," she says, rolling her eyes. To her surprise, Rose laughs.

"Oh, do I know that feeling. He thinks he's so impressive, and you're just there for him to show off to, right?" Rose says with a knowing look. Martha sighs in frustration and nods. Rose glances down the alley then leans in toward Martha, dropping her voice conspiratorially.

"Tell you what, I bet you keep him in line, you do. He'd probably be rubbish without you. First time I ever met my friend, after he blew up my job, we were looking for a transmitter and right behind him is a great big disk, exactly like he described, and it took me pointing at it three times for him to notice," she continues, still with the air of someone sharing a secret. 

Martha laughs, reeling a bit from the casual way her new friend references her job blowing up.

She's interrupted from her thoughts by a man that comes running down the street in the same direction Rose came from. 

"Rose!" he shouts, and skids to a stop in front of them. "Where have you been? Wandering off again?" he asks, folding his arms across his chest and trying to look cross. Rose beams up at him, ruining the effect. 

"Martha, this is the Doctor. Doctor, this is Martha. She's human too, can you believe it?" Rose introduces her new friend to the Doctor. The tall man in the leather jacket glances up and gives Martha a quick smile. "Yes, fantastic, nice to meet you. Rose, we've got to go," he says, turning back to the blonde. 

"Oh, did you find Jack, then?" she responds. The man - he can't possibly be the Doctor, Martha reasons, he looks nothing like him, it's probably just a coincidence - sighs impatiently. 

"Yeah, on his way to the city jail. We'll have to leg it, but we should be able to meet up with him once he gets himself out and before they decide to execute him. Or make him their new fertility god," he replies, muttering the last bit under his breath. Martha snorts. This Jack sounds like a character. She's about to ask what he's done when a familiar voice echoes down the alley, calling her name.

"Martha!" the Doctor shouts as he comes flying down the pavement. "Martha, I miscalculated, we've got to go!" he yells, coming to a stop. Martha crosses her arms, not moving. 

"Doctor, I was talking to someone," she tells him, nodding over to where Rose and the northern-sounding man are watching them curiously. The Doctor follows her gaze and freezes. His mouth moves almost as if he's saying something, but no sound comes out. The man with Rose notices him staring at her and shifts slightly so she's just a bit behind him. This snaps the Doctor out of whatever daze he was in, but his eyes keep flickering back to Rose. 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Doctor Ian Chesterton," he says. Martha raises an eyebrow at the name, but the other doctor frowns. 

"Ian Chesterton? Pull the other one, mate," he responds skeptically, expression darkening. Rose glances at him with questions written all over her face, but the Doctor keeps talking. 

"I am! Doctor Ian Chesterton. _Tenth_ in my family to be a doctor," he insists. The weird emphasis seems to mean something to the other man because he blanches, then looks closer at the Doctor.

"You? Really?" he asks, sounding vaguely insulted. The Doctor rolls his eyes. 

"Yes, me, really!" he answers impatiently. Rose's doctor makes a face, but is prevented from saying anything by Rose herself, who steps out from behind him to hold out her hand to the Doctor. 

"Sorry 'bout him," she interrupts with an indulgent smile. "He can be a bit rude. I'm Rose, nice to meet you Dr. Chesterton," she introduces herself. The Doctor takes her hand gently, eyes not leaving her face. There's an odd look on his face, a combination of awe and grief that makes Martha uncomfortable. 

Maybe this Rose reminds him of his Rose, Martha muses. She's pulled out of her thoughts again by the distant sound of an explosion. Rose glances at her doctor, hand still grasped by the Doctor's. He nods, and she turns back to say goodbye. She grins at them, her tongue poking out between her teeth. Martha hears the Doctor inhale sharply. 

"Was lovely meeting you, Martha, and you, Dr. Chesterton. Don't take her for granted, yeah?" she says, nodding toward Martha, then pulls her hand back as if she hadn't noticed they were still linked. The Doctor exhales shakily. 

"Yeah," he agrees quietly. "Goodbye, Rose," he adds, and she smiles at them both before taking off down the street. Rose's doctor regards him for a moment, arms still crossed. Martha watches the silent exchange, wondering if they know each other or something. The Doctor watches Rose run toward the mouth of the alley and turn the corner, then looks the other man dead in the eye. 

There's an awful expression on his face, something that looks far too close to heartbreak. The other doctor's eyes widen, then a bit of the bleak expression creeps onto his own face. He shakes it off, gives them a nod, and follows Rose around the corner. 

Once they're both gone, the Doctor exhales heavily then turns to Martha, manic grin back in place. "So! Got the timing a bit off, we'll have to leave, but I think I can probably get us to some point a bit further in the future. Or!" he shouts excitedly, changing tack, "We could go see the moon landing! The moon landing's brilliant! What do you think?" he asks. 

Martha regards him seriously for a moment. "Did you know them?" she asks. The Doctor's grin slides off his face. He swallows. 

"A long time ago," he replies. "I was a different man back then." 

"How come they didn't recognize you then? The tall bloke, he said he was the Doctor too. Is it a title or something? I thought you told me it was your name."

The Doctor runs his hands through his hair. "It's complicated," he growls. Martha stands her ground.

"So un-complicate it," she retorts. The Doctor takes in her resolute stance, arms crossed and face set, and sighs, before turning and walking down the street. 

"Come on," he calls over his shoulder. Martha hurries to catch up. 

They make their way back to the TARDIS, the Doctor somehow navigating the endless side streets. He's quiet for the first few minutes, hands stuffed in his pockets. 

"So?" Martha prods after they've made a few more turns.

"I'm a time-traveller, Martha. I don't always meet people in the right order. You asked me if I knew them. I do, but they don't know me. Not yet."

Martha takes a minute to wrap her head around that. She thinks about the look in his eye when he was talking to Rose and the strange way he introduced himself to the other doctor. 

"Was that your Rose? The one you talk about? And what about the man? How are you both the Doctor?" 

The Doctor hesitates. "We're...related," he finally says as they turn the final corner and come upon the TARDIS. He busies himself with unlocking the door. 

"But Rose-" Martha begins, but he cuts her off.

"So! Where do you want to go next?" he asks as they enter, grin firmly in place. She starts to protest, but she takes in his body language, tense and still, and decides to let it go. 

She puts on a smile of her own. "What was that you said about the moon landing?" 

The Doctor's relief is palpable. "Oh, Martha Jones, just you wait!" he exclaims, throwing a lever. 

Martha smiles before telling him she's going to take a shower and change her clothes. Once she's left the room, the Doctor slumps over the console. He rests his weight on his hands, eyes closed.

He doesn't move for a long time.


End file.
